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Competition Law Toolkit
III. Countries That Have Adopted Systems of Competition LawThere are at least 100 systems of competition law in the world today. Some of these laws date back more than a century: the US, for example, enacted the Sherman Act in 1890. The competition rules of the European Union were adopted by the Treaty of Rome of 1957. The German Act Against Unfair Restraints of Competition was also adopted in 1957. Antitrust law in the United Kingdom began with the Monopolies and Restrictive Practices (Inquiry and Control) Act of 1948. The first competition law in Japan was the Act Concerning Prohibition of Private Monopoly and Maintenance of Fair Trade of 1947. Since the beginning of the 1990s, the number of systems of competition law has proliferated. Competition law is now in place in all six continents, and in all kinds of economies—large, small, continental, island, advanced, developing, industrial, trading, agricultural, liberal and post-communist. Following are various sources of information on the countries that have adopted systems of competition law.
The International Bar Association's Global Competition Forum provides a helpful account of competition laws all over the world. It also provides links to the most current versions of the world's competition laws, as well as national competition authorities, international organizations involved in the subject, and articles, speeches and commentary by many well-known experts in competition law enforcement, regulation, and reform. Links to the competition laws of the countries in the Middle East and Asia, which are listed in the Global Competition Forum website, are in Other Resources. Countries in the Middle East and Asia that have systems of competition law:
Many other countries in the region are in the process of developing competition laws. The ICN is an informal virtual network that seeks to facilitate cooperation between competition authorities and to promote procedural and substantive convergence of competition laws. A Steering Group oversees the conduct of its business. Membership is open to national and multinational organizations responsible for the enforcement of competition law. The ICN provides competition agencies from developed and developing countries with a focused network for addressing practical competition law enforcement and policy issues of common concern. It facilitates procedural and substantive convergence in competition law enforcement through a results-oriented agenda and an informal, project-driven organization. The ICN currently has 89 members. The following Asian countries are members of the ICN1:
UNCTAD has taken an interest in the development of competition policy for many years. Its website provides a number of useful links, both to national competition authorities and to international organizations such as the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation Competition Policy and Law Database. The site also includes a Directory of Competition Authorities [ PDF ]. OECD provides useful material on competition as well as links to competition authorities of many member and non-member countries.
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